Spilled oil in the trunk, suggestions?

R

rcrobbins

New member
Coming into work last week, a friend of mine spilled a good 3/4 of a Gallon of Mobil 1 in the trunk of his G35. It was completely soaked through and puddled in the spare tire well. I don't even know where to start. I was thinking just degreaser and pressure washer, but doubt that will touch it. Is there a fabric safe hydrocarbon solvent out? I've been out of the detailing world for quite a while. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
There's a product I came across that makes strong claims of cleaning up oil exceptionally well. I've never tried it, but here's some info . Seems interesting:



Oil Lift
 
Solvent wipe and or extraction-Mineral Spirits, to name a few that would work, there are carpet specific solvents.



Apc- degreaser wipe and or extraction.



Repeat again, in that order.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I tried to buy oil lift, but it seems to be a problem with their payments sending me the error my cards are "invalid" lol. I found another retailer online who carried it, but wanted ~$29 shipping on a $28 2L bottle. It was a promising try though.



My friend is dropping the rear cover off tomorrow night and seeing what I can do. He told me today he used degreaser and pressure washer already to no avail.



I like the idea of mineral spirits, but don't know the best way to use it on the carpet. I'm guessing just spray bottle application then lay some rags on it with weight on top to absorb?



I was also thinking of sprinkling baking soda on it and letting it sit for a day, then vacuum. Then try a (Water-Dawn solution spray down/agitate/extract) X2, then blow dry to see if any progress was made.
 
I would use car litter to get the majority up. Then treat the rest of the area with a apc/dawn mix. You will probally have to repeat this process a few times to get it all



I would also either use your beater shop vac or go to a DIY for the vacuming. You don't want that junk reappearing on your next detail :cooleek:
 
Oil can certainly be a mess for sure. Try to soak up as much as possible before introducing any wetness to it. Use paper towels or throw away rags because you aren't going to have good luck washing the oil out of them. You should also try removing the affected area to scope out the entire range of the spill. Then try thinning it out with any kind of solvent like odorless mineral spirits or even alcohol. Totally saturate the area and let it sit. Keep wiping it away until you can't lift any more out. After that drench/scrub the area with APC(degreaser) or even a heavy dose of Dawn and if possible powerwash it. I'd do it at a coin-operated/self-serve car wash because if you do it in your driveway you'll get oil all over the place. Keep blasting until it's all gone(which could be a little while). Here's some shot of the last oil spill I did:



Picture004-1.jpg


Picture001.jpg


Picture009-1.jpg
 
I would first try using oil absorber , the kind that looks like little rocks or kitty litter. put the carpet on the ground and sprinkle the stuff on and grind it into the carpet with your heel. let it sit overnight to wickup the excess stuff. might need to do it a couple of times. once you get the majority of it out then use oil eater (or any kind of cleaner that will disolve the oil) and a bunch of rags. will probably take multiple applications to get it out.
 
Thanks guys. I'll keep some of these suggestions in mind. It was a busy work week and I have to go in this weekend, so we decided to push this back till next week. I will keep the thread updated when I start working on the carpet.
 
Same happened to me a while back, tried gallons of degreasers and a bunch of other stuff, at the end it still had an oily feel to it. Replace carpet, especially if it's in the trunk, should be reasonably small.
 
Ovidiu said:
Replace carpet, especially if it's in the trunk, should be reasonably small.
Click to expand...



That would be my first thought as well. I suspect you'll spend hours trying to clean something that's going to be next to impossible. I bet he could phone boneyards and maybe find something used for little $$$.
 
I'm also going to say look into replacing the carpet. Yes, you can get it mostly cleaned up using the methods in this thread, but its going to be a pain, you'll spend some money on products to use for it, and in the end you may still have an oil smell. If you have even a little oil left, the sun will bake down on it through your glass hatch and make your interior smell like oil.
 
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